Royce paced around the room, alternately running his hands through the short, brown stubble of hair on his head and then wringing them ferociously. 'This...t-this is nuts!...my home, my whole WORLD is hanging in the balance...dependent on me...I need to FIGHT to keep it alive...' he thought frantically. He almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the concept, but instead he was almost physically sick. Having so much pressure heaped on his shoulders at once was overwhelming to the extreme. He felt light headed, but that may have been because of his irregular breathing.
'Ok...ok...need to calm down...think clearly...calm down...' he thought. He searched for a way to clear his mind, and only came on one solution. He stripped off the majority of his equipment, then stood before one of the walls in the empty room. He stared at it for a while, imagining a human silhouette on the space directly in front of him. He raised his fists.
He recalled the time he and his team had spent together before operation Allied Shield. This was before Dion had joined with them. At that time, he wasn't very close to any of his teammates, but he didn't have anything against them either. After a few days of relative inactivity, Julian had insisted that he and Royce should train together. Royce had never been very good at hand-to-hand combat. Julian, on the other hand, was an excellent hand-to-hand specialist. This was somewhat due to the fact that he was a sniper and, therefore, needed to protect himself if any enemy got close to him. Mostly though, he was already skilled thanks to years of boxing training at the private school he had attended, and so he was determined to impart his knowledge to Royce.
Royce was dubious about the chances of his own success, but Julian was adamant about how Royce would be a natural due to his height and, already, muscular physique (which he had developed with his own childhood/young adulthood passion, swimming). Eventually Royce agreed, if only to please Julian. The training was a long and difficult, but Royce made considerable improvement quickly. Over time he became a fine fighter in his own right, but given his natural aversion to violence of any kind, Royce quickly, but quietly, dismissed all that he had learned.
Now as he stared at the invisible enemy on the wall, his fists tightly clenched in front of him, all the long hours of training came back to him. He started off with a few light jabs and straights, just barely making contact with the wall's surface. But soon his punches were brutal and and forceful. He pounded on the wall, hoping to pummel it, and his frustrations, into submission. He rested his head against the wall and panted heavily. He looked at the wall and saw it stained by blood. Looking down at his knuckles he saw the torn skin. Despite his exhaustion, he felt he could think clearly. 'I need...I need to stay alive...and to do that I...I need to fight...it's the only way...' the conclusion was simple enough to him. He knew he would have to kill the Titan that threatened him and his world. He was surprisingly alright with that idea.